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Friday, March 24, 2017

The Summer Session at the National Casting Center Foundry will be extra special this year as we are combining the summer school with several International Visiting Artists who will be making work alongside you for the International Iron Conference !! Sign Up and really make some new work that you could never make by yourself !!

Monday - Friday, 9 am - 5 pm with open studio hours : includes field trip to Fire at the Furnace in Scranton, PA : the venue for the International Conference on Contemporary Cast Iron Art 2018

This three week course provides a unique opportunity to explore an
expanding contemporary art from within a rich tradition. Students will
experience the art and act of metal casting from the ground up by learning how
to build and operate a furnace, make molds, run a pour, cast and finish
sculpture. Skills taught include general foundry practice such as furnace
building, welding steel, wax working, modeling, pattern making, ceramic shell,
sand molding, pour preparation, casting, metal finishing, chasing, patination,
and installation. Topics covered are Contemporary Cast Metal Sculpture and the
Tradition of Metal Casting.

At the National Casting
Center Foundry students learn ancient techniques alongside environmental
practices and current digital processes and are strongly encouraged to push the
practice into new territories. Molding processes taught are lost wax, ceramic shell,
green sand, clay, and resin bonded sand. The 7000 square foot facility houses a
large wax working room, patina area, and an extensive casting floor with a
fully electronic overhead bridge crane. Furnaces range from a high temp
induction furnace for iron, stainless and Corten steel, 2 traditional coke
fired iron cupolas from 1000# to 100# capacity, charcoal fired ancient furnace
as well as two gas-fired bronze and aluminum crucible furnaces as well as
centrifugal casting. Future plans include adding a vegetable oil furnace to the
Environmental Foundry.

Students
studying at the National Casting Center are not only able to manifest their
visions in materials and unparalleled technologies, they are encouraged to
experiment with technique and are expected to gain experience in running the
facilities which provides them with valuable working skills upon graduation.
Many students graduating through the National Casting Center are now in
leadership positions as teachers, employed in some of the top fine art foundries
nationwide or have successfully set up their own studios.

Thursday, December 15, 2016

A monument is something erected in memory of or as enduring
evidence of a person or an event of importance. Through this investigation I am
interested in exploring the way people immortalizes these events of importance
in their lives or the lives of the populous.

Traditionally monuments have been
used to memorialize and immortalize events of greater importance. I am
interested in the way one can monumentalize the unmonumental.

By shrinking the
scale of these monuments, both physically and conceptually, an interesting
juxtaposition is formed that brings value to the importance of
individuals. Through the use of two distinct views on Unmonumental Monumentation
I am curious to explore how this juxtaposition operates in different environments.

'Ode to Adventure' is an earlier work it is the beginning of a one sided conversation discussing what living really is.

Each object represents for myself a time and a place. They each carry with themselves a heavy tale of how we met and where we are going. As I travel I am prone to seek out items to add to my collection as with each object I am in a sense adding to myself, creating a more lively narrative of my own life as well as that of the objects I stumble across. In my Ode to Adventure I have gathered objects that each tell a tale of exploration, be it in the literal sense or a more interpersonal one. This Ode is particularly interesting to me because each item within the collage can tell a different story for each person be it the comical and childish threat of a can of mace for one, or the very real intimidation felt by the same object for others. I am curious to continue to push this dialogue of alternative perspective as it truly says a lot about where each viewer comes from and possibly where they are going. An adventure does not always mean hopping a fence or running from the law, life is whatever you make of it. Why not make it an adventure?

Wednesday, December 14, 2016

My work is an investigation into my subconscious in hopes of
capturing the fluidity I find myself submerged in. From a young age, I've been
attracted to spherical, drippy, bulbous and organic forms. What this means
exactly I'm unsure of, but will continue to explore this.

I'm captivated by the
physical qualities existing within ceramic materials, it's malleability and the
immediacy the material provides. Metal casting in many ways is quite similar to
ceramics. Whether that from the tremendous possibilities obtainable through
different processes, the uncertainty, or the vast amount of labor involved
within each material. Within both materials each step presents a multitude of
questions loaded with new insight, ideas and direction.

Working with Morgan Donohue, Visiting Moldmaker from Polich Tallix Foundry

My work changes and
adapts due to a range in my emotional, spiritual and mental state at the time
of construction. I remain open to the unexpected possibilities each material
presents throughout the development of the work. Throughout the physical and
chemical changes each material withholds I'm constantly provided with new
information perpetually leading me to push the limitations of the materials.

'Identification'

Environment and interpersonal
relationships help form this idea of identity. Identity is not a solid stable
concept. Our perception of our world changes through new stimuli were exposed
to daily. We’re constantly learning, growing and adapting. Whether we are fully
conscious of these changes is another story. Although there are times I’ve
stumbled upon new information which was enlightening and have felt somehow
different than ever before. Despite the fact that Identity is a rather fluid and
ever changing concept we somehow define ourselves within it. Perception is a
huge part of it. How we perceive ourselves. How others perceive us. How we
think others perceive us can be rather different. Our exterior appearance often
gets used to identify. As does the experiences we share with those who we have
relations with. In conversations between people often we’ll use descriptive
language to describe a third party. In that language we find ourselves
describing what would generally make that person stand out helping to identify that
person, whether that be previous actions or encounters, hair, clothing style,
glasses, eye color, accessories , etc. In the past two and a half years I’ve
been identified in conversations as the girl with dreadlocks.

Personally I
identified myself with them. They were a part of me I carried around for a
substantial amount of time. Each one has a story behind it, process, creation,
decoration and progress. Some made intentionally and others formed themselves
over time. Alike many relationships I have.All of the beads, bolts, trinkets and feathers were gifts from different
encounters I’ve had among my travels across the states. Some made from friends
while others gifted from strangers. A majority of the locks were snipped by
those who I’ve shared or had impactful / life altering experiences with. Each
lock is loaded with the experiences I’ve identified with for so long and now
the experiences I’ve had with those who I identify with.

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

I delved into the body of work Self looking to explore my self identity, particularly within my body and how it relates to it. I chose to cast my body and the imprints or impact it makes in the world as well as the volume I take up within the world.

The first part of this journey was within Critiquing social constructions- bra and bare. In these two pieces I explored the quite literal way that society shapes women's bodies, and how that plays into beauty standards and self worth.

The second was Female Nipple as a response to the female nipple being considered pornographic on many social media platforms including those used for artwork such as Instagram.

Impact imprints was created for two separate reasons, the first wanting to cast my body without taking a literal body casting, and the second representing the internalized anger having to do with the shear amount of sexism, both intentional and non, that a woman faces when working in a predominantly male field such as metal working.

Figure: Form was cast to look at the body purely as a form, and how I relate to my body in a purely artistic since. Personal volume was cast to represent the physical space I take up in the world. As a woman, I often feel as though I should take up as little space as possible, to be small, quite, collected, and non-confrontational. As a response to this I cast the fullest parts of my body, those that hold the most volume, in iron to make a space for my body to be where it will not be shrunk or encroached upon.

Monday, December 12, 2016

It is a societal
norm in modern day that we purchase what is needed when it is needed
and when items around the home break we either pay others to fix them or
purchase a new one. To most this is convenient, though in the world that we
live in there are so many conveniences.Many of these conveniences separate the individual from the things that
make up the world around them.

I can take
responsibility of building and creating the furniture and many necessary items
in my home. I then become the "user" after striving to be the
"maker".

Finding myself increasingly passionate about closing the gap
between the "maker" and the "user" with each new project, I
can see the reality of being able to start filtering out the unfamiliar,
factory made or imported objects with functional creations made by my own two
hands or by the hands of those around me.

Finding myself as
the "muser" of my own imitate world is only a goal at this part of my
life so I have taken the items that I have created in preparing myself for such
goal and filled a room. Here I present an elevated snap shot of my largest goal
in life.

'Once Carried Alone'

We all carry a lot around with us. We can fill bags upon bags both literally and metaphorically with the items we use as well as emotions we have. For the better of tomorrow times come where 'packing' a bag and leaving it behind is a healthy habit to find yourself in. Some experiences, traumas or good times, they all pass leaving behind just a relic. As for the future, all we can do it aim for our goals, project (if you will) an idea of what it is we want and go for it.

I was lying to myself as I set up for the presentation of my past, present and future featuring myself and all the baggage I carry thought out my days. I say this because I am not alone anymore, I have no need to hold the weight all myself. My partner has made life less heavy for me. If roles here, in the performance part of this installation were reversed, I would lighten his load as well.

About

A melting pot of experimental activity The National CastingCenter within the School of Art and Design at Alfred University comprises two comprehensive state of the art facilities one specializing in Glass Casting and the other in Metal Casting. Courses are taught extensively in both areas fromsophomore through to Graduate Level. As a part of the Sculpture Dimensional Studies Division and curriculum, students can overlap disciplines and techniques developing skills from small scale to large-scale sculpture. Rich in history,both glass and foundry arts date back over 5000 years. Students learn ancient techniques alongside environmental practices and current digital processes andare strongly encouraged to push the practice into new territories. Special topics course in metal and glass are taught to explore hands on how the two disciplines can interact.

The 7000 square foot foundry houses a large wax working room, patina area, walk in sand blasting and anextensive casting floor with a fully electronic overhead bridge crane. Furnaces range from a high temp induction furnace for stainless and Corten steel, a 1000 pound coke fired iron cupola, charcoal fired ancient furnace as well as two gas fired bronze and aluminum crucible furnaces and centrifugal casting. Molding processes taught are lost wax, zircon, ceramic shell, green sand, clay, resin bonded sand and alternative materials. Future plans include adding a vegetable oil furnace to the Environmental Foundry. The brand new Glass Casting Facility includes heat recovery glory holes with a full range of kilns, a new CNC mold ramming press, and appropriate finishing tools.

Students studying at the National Casting Center are not only able to manifest their visions in materials and unparalleled technologies, they are encouraged to experiment with technique and are expected to gain experience in running thefacilities which provides them with valuable working skills upon graduation.Many students graduating through the National Casting Center are now in leadership positions as teachers, employed in some of the top fine art foundries and glass centers nationwide or have successfully set up their own studios.